Fly tying process

ABSTRACT

A fly tying process in which hairs or fibers are precut to length and a bundle or bundles of hair are placed uniformly about and along the shank of a fishhook or lure. The bundle of hair and shank are encompassed by two continuous adjacent loops with a slip knot connecting an inner loop to an outer loop and an outer slip knot in the outer loop having free ends extending in opposite directions from the shank. Where the loops are formed from wire, the knots will not hold until reduced to a small diameter and deformed past the yield point of the wire. The reduction in size of the loops by drawing on the free ends of the wire, produces a rotating motion of the hair relative to the shank which uniformly spreads the hair before flaring of the hair as the wire is finally tightened. The wire loop is then covered with epoxy cement or plastic. The hair may be animal hair or synthetic fibers. As an alternate form of the disclosure, the loops are formed from thread and a split metal ring is crimped to the thread to hold the thread to the hair and shank.

United States Patent Duescher [151 3,659,371 [451 May 2,1972

[54] FLY TYING PROCESS Wayne 0. Duescher, 951 West County Rd. 02, St.Paul, Minn. 55113 [22] Filed: Apr. 29, 1970 [21] Appl.No.: 32,862

[72] Inventor:

Dunham ..'..43/42.28

Primary Examiner-Samuel Koren Assistant Examiner-Daniel J. LeachAttorney-Hill, Sherman, Meroni, Gross & Simpson [5 7] ABSTRACT A flytying process in which hairs or fibers are precut to length and a bundleor bundles of hair are placed uniformly about and along the shank of afishhook or lure. The bundle of hair and shank are encompassed by twocontinuous adjacent loops with a slip knot connecting an inner loop toan outer loop and an outer slip knot in the outer loop having free endsextending in opposite directions from the shank. Where the loops areformed from wire, the knots will not hold until reduced to a smalldiameter and deformed past the yield point of the wire. The reduction insize of the loops by drawing on the free ends of the wire, produces arotating motion of the hair relative to the shank which uniformlyspreads the hair before flaring of the hair as the wire is finallytightened. The wire loop is then covered with epoxy cement or plastic.The hair may be animal hair or synthetic fibers. As an alternate form ofthe disclosure,

' the loops are formed from thread and a split metal ring is crimped tothe thread to hold the thread to the hair and shank.

9 Claims, 7 Drawing Figures FLY TYING PROCESS Animal hair or imitationhair in the form of synthetic fibers is presently attached to the shanksof fishing lures, by forming a cone of thread wound on the shank of thelure, adjacent the eye of the lure, and tying precut hair or fibersparallel to the shank by winding thread under tension around the hairbetween the cone and the eye of the hook to flare and spread the hairaround the barbed portion of the hook, and at the same time fix thebundle of hair to the shank of the hook. The thread is then knotted andexcess hair is trimmed away from the area of the eye of the hook. Liquidadhesive is then applied about the thread which penetrates and fixes thebundle of hair to the shank of the hook.

This process of tying flies is an intricate, time-consuming process,requiring highly skilled hand labor.

By the process of the present invention, I greatly facilitate the tyingof hair to the shank of a hook by utilizing a wire loop, looped aboutthe hair and shank, which produces forces which flare the wire relativeto the shank upon restriction of the loop, and fixes the hair bundle tothe hook body in a simple linear movement without the use of theconventional handwound cone.

A principal object of the present invention, therefore, is to 1eliminate the previous time-consuming manual tying operations for makingartificial flies by utilizing a wire loop to affix and flare hair orsynthetic fibers to the shank of the hook.

Another object of the inventionis to provide a process for tying fliesin a more expeditious manner than formerly, by constricting aself-locking wire loop about a bundle of hair extending along andparallel to the shank of a hook, in which the ends of the loop areformed in the form of a slip knot, with the projecting ends of the wireextending at right angles to the shank, and in which the hair is flaredby constricting the loop and is permanently locked to the shank of thehook by drawing on the knots beyond the yield point of the wire.

Still a further object of the invention is to provide a new and improvedprocess for tying flies particularly adapted for machine tying, byplacing a continuous-strand double loop around a bundle of hairextending along the shank of a hook and constricting the'loop to rotateand flare the hair and then clipping the strand to lock the hair to theshank of the hook.

A still further object of the invention is to provide an improvedprocess for tying flies, adapted to be done by machine, in which asingle strand of wire is formed in the form of a double loop with a slipknot connecting the inner to the outer loop and the outer loopterminates in a slip knot with the free ends of the wire projectinggenerally perpendicular to the shank and in which one or more bundles ofstraight hairs or fibers are placed about the shank and the double loopsplaced about the hair and uniformly spreads the hair about the shank byconstricting on the loop and imparts a rotating motion to the hairrelative to the shank and then flares the hair by continuing theoperation of constricting on the loop.

Other objects, features and advantages of the invention will be readilyapparent from the following description of a preferred embodimentthereof, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, althoughvariations and modifications may be elfected without departing from thespirit and scope of the novel concepts of the disclosure.

DESCRIPTION or THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 is a view in side elevation of athree-pronged hook showing a bundle of hair placed about and extendingalong the shank of the hook.

FIG. 2 is an enlarged view of a double looped wire, of a form which maybe used to uniformly distribute, flare and secure the hair to the shankof the hook.

FIG. 3 is a view showingvthe double looped wire placed about a bundle ofhair extending along the shank of the hook.

FIG. 4 is a view showing the loop constricted by pulling on the freeends thereof and flaring the hair about the barbs of the hook.

FIG. 5 is a view somewhat similar to FIG. 4 but showing the hair andfree ends of the wire trimmed.

FIG. 6 is a view showing cement applied to the hair and wire extendingabout the shank of the hook; and

FIG. 7 is a view somewhat similar to FIG. 6 but showing a crimping ringcrimped to the loops.

DESCRIPTION OF PREFERRED EMBODIMENT OF INVENTION In FIG. 6 of thedrawings, I have shown a lure 10 formed about a fishhook having a shank11 with a bundle or bundles of hair 16 or other suitable fibrousmaterial tied thereto and flared outwardly of the shank to concealbarbed hooks 12, 12 of the fishhook. The bundle of hair is secured tothe shank of the hook andtied thereto as by a double loop strand 13covered by a suitable cement such as a high-viscosity epoxy cement 15.

The term hair as used herein is intended to include natural hair, suchas animal hair, and particularly hair taken from the tails of squirrels,and to include artificial hair made from plastic or synthetic fibers orany other material commonly used in tying flies. A suitable syntheticfiber is a fiber known by the trade name of Dynel made fromacrylonitrile and vinyl chloride and manufactured by Carbide and CarbonChemical Company.

The fishhook 10 may be a conventional three-pronged hook, but may be asingle or double hook as well. The process of the present invention mayalso be used to apply hair to lures such as French spinners, jigs,streamer flies and the like, or may be applied directly to wire.

In FIG. 1 of the drawings, I have shown a fishhook having a bundle ofhair 16 extending along and about the shank 11 of the hook beyond thehooked ends thereof. While one bundle of hair is shown herein, two orthree bundles placed about the shank can be used to advantage. With thebundle or bundles of hair extending along the shank of the hook ingenerally parallel relation relative to each other, a double loopedstrand 13 is placed about the hair and shank of the hook adjacent an eye17 of the hook. The double looped strand 13 may be made from amonofilament which may be wire, or other suitable materials and is shownin FIG. 2 as including an inner loop 19 and an outer loop 20 generallyconcentric with the inner loop as the loop is placed about the shank andbundle of wire. As the ends of wire forming the loop 19 are trained toform the loop 20, the ends thereof forming the loop are crossed andintertwined with the loop 19 to form a simple form of slip knot 21. Theends of the loop 20 are also intertwined to form a slip knot 22 havingfree ends 23 extending generally at right angles to the axes of theloops and adapted to be gripped and pulled in opposite directions, toconstrict the two loops l9 and 20.

The wire used to form the loop 13 is preferably a high tensile strengthwire having a smooth finish to prevent the cutting ofi of individualfibers or hairs as the loop is drawn down. A bright finish stainlessspring wire has been found to be very satisfactory. Such a high tensilestrength wire will not rust upon use of the hook and enables the loopsto be readily constricted and enables the force imparted by the wire onthe hair to be increased to attain a substantial flaring of the hair asthe loops are in their final form.

With the bundle or bundles of hair extending along the shank of the hookfrom the eye thereof beyond the barbed hooks 12 thereof, the two loops19 and 20 when in their open position are placed about the hair,adjacent the eye 17 of the hook. The ends 23 of the looped wire are thendrawn outwardly in opposite directions relative to the shank of the hookin directions generally perpendicular thereto. This operation willconstrict the loops and the end of the bundle adjacent the eye 17 and indoing this produces a rotational movement of the loops and of the hairrelative to the shank of the hook. This rotational movement uniformlyspreads the hair before any substantial flaring. The constrictingoperation is then continued to tightly bind the hair to the shank andflare the hair during constriction of the loops to extend outwardly ofthe barbed hooks and then conceal said barbed hooks, as shown in FIG. 4.

When the two loops are in their final restricted form, as shown in FIG.4, the ends 23 of the loops have been pulled with sufficient force todeform the knots 21 and 22 beyond the yield point of the wire, and tothus positively lock the loops to the hair and shank of the hook.

When the hair is locked to the shank of the hook by constricting theloops l9 and 20, as shown in FIG. 4, the ends 23 of the wire may betrimmed. The hair extending beyond the loops toward the eye of the hookmay also be trimmed by searing the excess hair with a hot wire, or byabrading off the excess hair by a rotating wire brush, or by the use ofscissors. A wire makes it possible to trim the excess hair by heat orabrading. The trailing ends of the hair may further be trimmed toenhance the appearance of the fly, if desired.

As the hair is trimmed, a cement may be applied to the wire loop andhair tied to the shank. The cement may be a high viscosity epoxyadhesive completely obscuring the wire and ends of the hair, and may beformed to provide a smooth finished leading end of the hook.

In FIG. 7of the drawings, 1 have shown a tied fly similar to that shownin FIG. 6 except a monofilament which may be in the form of thread 25replaces the steel wire loop. The thread 25 may have a pair ofconcentric loops with slip knots between each loop, although the slipknots need not necessarily be provided in this form of the invention.The opposite free ends of the thread may be drawn in directions awayfrom the shank of the hook at generally right angles with respectthereto by hand or a suitable machine, to first produce a rotatingmotion of the hairs, to,;spread the hairuniformly about the hook and tothen flare the hair outwardly from the shank toward and beyond thebarbed ends of the hook as the ends of the loop are taken up. A clipring 26, which may be a common form of split ring may then be placedabout the thread and crimped thereto, to permanently hold the loops tothe hair and shank. The monofilament loop and clip ring maythen becemented by a high viscosity epoxy cement after trimming of the hairaround the loop, to provide a permanently tied fly with an improvedappearance at the point of attachment of the'hair to the shank of thehook, and with the tying threads completely covered so as not to beexposed to abrasion.

It should be understood from theforegoing that the fly tying process ofthe present invention is particularly adapted for mass productiontechniques and may be done by machine, since the hand forming of thecone necessary to flare the hair and the wrapping of the restricted endof the hair with thread to retain the hair to the shank of the hook iseliminated. When a bundle or bundles are placed about the shank of thehook and the double loop encircles the bundle and shank, a straight linepull on the ends of the loop in opposite directions uniformly spreadsthe hairs of the bundles as the loops are constricted, and also flaresthe hair to attain a fly having an improved appearance and greaterdurability than hand-tied flies heretofore in use.

When tying a fly or other lure of the present process, either by hand orby machine, a single linear draw action is exerted on the free ends ofthe loop, to spread and form the hair with the required flare, which isfar. simpler than winding a cone and winding and knotting to attach thehair to the shank and cone, and attains a substantial flaring of thehair determined by the force applied to the ends of the loop.

Where the fly is tied by machine, the machine may be constructed toallow for non-symmetrical pull to compensate for uneven tightening ofthe knots.

It should further be understood that while the process has beendescribed with reference to one bundle of hair placed about the shank ofthe hook, that two or three evenly sized bundles may be placed about theshank of the hook to simplify the tying and flaring operations and thedouble wire loop may be drawn with sufficient power to adequately flarethe bundles, particularly where the bundles of hair may be artificialfiber, requiring larger forces to flare than natural hair.

It should further be understood that where wire is used for tying, italso may be clipped instead of deforming the knots beyond the yieldpoint of the wire and that the wire even may be retained to clamp thehair to the shank of the hook by weldmg.

I claim as my invention:

1. A fly tying process comprising the steps of:

a. placing a fishhook having an eye and shank extending therefrom in apreselected position,

b. locating at least one bundle of hair around the shank of the hookwith the strands of hair extending parallel to the shank and generallyaligned therewith,

c. forming a wire strand in the form of a double loop having slip knotsin each loop, and having intertwined ends projecting therefrom,

d. placing the double loop along and about the strands of hair and shankinto position adjacent the eye of the hook with oppositely projectingfree intertwined ends extending generally tangentially of the loop,

e. then drawing outwardly on the intertwined ends of the loop andcontracting the loop to first impart a rotating motion to the hair touniformly spread the hair about the shank of the hook and then flare thehair as the loop is contracted into a securing position.

2. The fly tying process of claim 1, including the additional step ofcrimping a split ring to the loop, to lock the loop and hair to theshank of the hook.

3. The fly tying process of claim 2, including the additional step ofapplying a high viscosity cement tothe loop and split ring, and coveringthe leading ends of the strands of hair and loop.

4. The process of claim 1, wherein the wire loop is formed from springsteel and including the additional step of locking the loop to the hairand shank by tightening on the knots beyond the yield point of the wire.

5. The process of claim 4, including the additional step of applying ahigh viscosity cement to the loop and leading ends of the hair andsmoothing the cement to provide a smooth surface extending about theloop and constricted end portions of the hair.

6. The fly tying process of claim 1,

including the step of crimping a clip ring to the loop to retain theloop in position.

7. The fly tying process of claim 6, including the additional step ofapplying a high viscosity epoxy cement to the monofilament loop, clipring and constricted end portions of the hair, to retain themonofilament fiber from exposure to abrasion and smoothing the cement toprovide a smooth surface in the region of attachment of the hair to theshank of the hook.

8. A fishing fly comprising:

a hook having:

a. an eye,

b. a shank extending from said eye,

c. at least one hook portion extending from the shank,

d. at least one bundle of hair extending about the shank and hook andflared downwardly relative to the shank from the eye to the hook,

a monofilament double loop formed from wire and extending about thebundle and shank adjacent said eye having a slip knot connecting a firstloop to a second loop and slip knot in the second loop having projectingfree ends and constricted to constrict the bundle to the shank and flarethe hair outwardly from the shank about the hook, i f. means securingthe loop in position and securing the hair to the shank, comprising thedeformation of the knots of the wire loop beyond the yield point of theloop, by drawing on the free ends of the loop, and

g. an epoxy adhesive covering the loop and contracted ends of the hair.

9. A fishing fly in accordance with claim 8, wherein the means lockingthe monofilament to the hair and shank comprises a clip ring extendingabout the monofilament loop and clipped thereto.

1. A fly tying process comprising the steps of: a. placing a fishhookhaving an eye and shank extending therefrom in a preselected position,b. locating at least one bundle of hair around the shank of the hookwith the strands of hair extending parallel to the shank and generallyaligned therewith, c. forming a wire strand in the form of a double loophaving slip knots in each loop, and having intertwined ends projectingtherefrom, d. placing the double loop along and about the strands ofhair and shank into position adjacent the eye of the hook withoppositely projecting free intertwined ends extending generallytangentially of the loop, e. then drawing outwardly on the intertwinedends of the loop and contracting the loop to first impart a rotatingmotion to the hair to uniformly spread the hair about the shank of thehook and then flare the hair as the loop is contracted into a securingposition.
 2. The fly tying process of claim 1, including the additionalstep of crimping a split ring to the loop, to lock the loop and hair tothe shank of the hook.
 3. The fly tying process of claim 2, includingthe additional step of applying a high viscosity cement to the loop andsplit ring, and covering the leading ends of the strands of hair andloop.
 4. The process of claim 1, wherein the wire loop is formed fromspring steel and including the additional step of locking the loop tothe hair and shank by tightening on the knots beyond the yield point ofthe wire.
 5. The process of claim 4, including the additional step ofapplying a high viscosity cemEnt to the loop and leading ends of thehair and smoothing the cement to provide a smooth surface extendingabout the loop and constricted end portions of the hair.
 6. The flytying process of claim 1, including the step of crimping a clip ring tothe loop to retain the loop in position.
 7. The fly tying process ofclaim 6, including the additional step of applying a high viscosityepoxy cement to the monofilament loop, clip ring and constricted endportions of the hair, to retain the monofilament fiber from exposure toabrasion and smoothing the cement to provide a smooth surface in theregion of attachment of the hair to the shank of the hook.
 8. A fishingfly comprising: a hook having: a. an eye, b. a shank extending from saideye, c. at least one hook portion extending from the shank, d. at leastone bundle of hair extending about the shank and hook and flareddownwardly relative to the shank from the eye to the hook, e. amonofilament double loop formed from wire and extending about the bundleand shank adjacent said eye having a slip knot connecting a first loopto a second loop and slip knot in the second loop having projecting freeends and constricted to constrict the bundle to the shank and flare thehair outwardly from the shank about the hook, f. means securing the loopin position and securing the hair to the shank, comprising thedeformation of the knots of the wire loop beyond the yield point of theloop, by drawing on the free ends of the loop, and g. an epoxy adhesivecovering the loop and contracted ends of the hair.
 9. A fishing fly inaccordance with claim 8, wherein the means locking the monofilament tothe hair and shank comprises a clip ring extending about themonofilament loop and clipped thereto.